🚀 go-pugleaf

for the Jewish Hospital before
*   his arrest.  He grew up suffering from severe asthma and tried all
*   kinds of medicines to alleviate his problem.  At age 18, he discovered
*   that smoking marijuana made it easier for him to breathe.  For the
*   next decade he smoked marijuana and was able to enjoy activities he
*   had never been able to do before.
*   
*   In 1993, at age 30, Joe decided to grow his own marijuana in the attic
*   of the house he shared with his mother.  He purchased some growing
*   equipment from an indoor gardening store that was under surveillance
*   by the DEA.  The DEA traced Joe to his home, checked his electric
*   bills to see if it was unusually high, and then flew over his house at
*   2:00 a.m. in a helicopter equipped with an infrared device.  The
*   infrared equipment showed a white light emanating from Joe's roof,
*   indicating the escape of a large amount of heat, while the other roof-
*   tops were black.
*   
*   Joe was arrested and took his case to trial.  The jury found Joe
*   guilty of cultivating marijuana, but not guilty of possessing it with
*   intent to distribute.

I said before the Drug War was highly politicized.

It's a matter of politics over matter when the government's Drug War elevates
marijuana above its true pharmacological controlled substances classification;
it's a matter of hysteria to escalate it to the same top category as heroin
and LSD, 'Schedule I Substances'. Even cocaine is only Schedule II.

Late 1996 / early 1997, several states, including California, passed laws
via citizen initiative ballots that legalized marijuana if a doctor prescribes
it. Usually for nausea or weight loss from chemotherapy or AIDS.

A massive Federal and State Drug War hysteria
campaign failed to stop people approving it.

*   The New York Times, Oct 3, 1996, San Francisco